ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

CHAPTER 12 ~ Death of the Sea Giant

"Wake up, little one. It's time. Come on, you lazy child, wake up."

A voice was speaking close to Laura. She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking it gently.

"Aaaaw, Mom, please let me sleep five more minutes. That old school bus is always late," mumbled Laura, wrapping her arms around the pillow and snuggling deeper into it.

"Some of your words are new to me," said Mom. But for some reason the voice did not sound at all like Mom. This strange thought began to push the sleep from Laura;s brain. "You can explain what a school bus is, later, Sho-karee. Right now you'd better wake up and attend to your duties, or I'll have Qua-yuta pour seawater on your head."

Laura suddenly realized that the voice belonged to Mauk-sis-a-noop!

The memory of where she was suddenly rushed into the 5th grader's mind. Sitting up quickly, she rubbed her eyes and then looked around.

It was nighttime, and the gently rolling ocean was gliding past the Makah canoe as it was pushed along by the steady, even strokes of the rowers. They were still alternating in two groups, with one group resting while the other group took their turn, dipping the paddles into the dark water in perfect unison with each stroke.

Straight overhead, a full moon filled the night sky with a pearly light. In spite of the moon's brightness, many stars dotted the sky, shining more brilliantly than Laura had ever seen them before.

Behind the lead canoe which carried Laura were the other canoes of the whale hunting fleet. But they weren't arranged in a straight line as they had been during the first hour of the long chase. Now they were spread out, so that the men in the canoes could watch a wide stretch of the ocean ahead.

Whenever the pod of whales would dive beneath the surface, the men in the canoes would keep careful watch in their own areas. As soon as the first whale was spotted returning to the surface to breath, the men would call out and direct the master harpooner's attention to the whale pod's new location.

At the front of each canoe were two long poles which tilted forward, leaning out over the water and angling to each side like the hands of a clock at 10:00 and 2:00. The ends of the poles had been wrapped in soft strands of cedar bark, then soaked in whale oil and set on fire.

These blazing torches lit the way for the fleet of canoes as they followed the whale pod. About twice each hour, these long torches needed a new wrapping of cedar bark strands, after which they were set fire again.

This was one of the jobs for which Qua-yuta and his two time-traveling friends were responsible. Mauk-sis-a-noop had awakened Laura because one of the torches on their canoe was burning low, and it needed a new wrapping of cedar bark.

Laura saw no sign of the great ocean giants they were following. After looking all around she spoke to the master harpooner, who was still standing at the very front of the canoe, gazing ahead at the moonlit sea beyond the small area illuminated by the torches.

"Sir? Uh . . . Where are the whales?"

Mauk-sis-a-noop turned slowly, looked down at Laiura With a faint smile as he said very softly, "They're in the water."

Laura just stared blankly at the tall man for a moment, not knowing if he was serious or not. After a few seconds, Mauk-sis-a-noop smiled widened as he said, "Oh, you mean where are they exactly? Well, they dove a short time ago, but I don't think they'll stay down very long, because — " he tilted his head back and gazed up the bright moon above, " — the sky is too beautiful."

Laura considered Mauk-sis-a-noop's remark for a moment, then she said, "You mean . . . the whales like to come up and see the sky?"

Mauk-sis-a-noop looked back down at the young person at his feet, and he gave her a warm smile. "Well . . . wouldn't you?"

As the master harpooner turned his attention back to the sea ahead, :Laura thought about the special closeness which the Makah had with the natural world around them. These people felt that the whales were basically no different from themselves. The animals of the sea and the land and the air were their "brothers".

Knowing this, it seemed strange to Laura that the Makah were willing to hunt and kill their brothers. But Laura was beginning to understand something very important about the people of the world, something she was learning from the adventures she had experienced so far.

Laura had learned that people of different cultures have their own special ways of looking at the world. She was also beginning to think that many of the problems in her own time period were caused by the fact that people from different cultures needed to take the time to understand each other better. Every culture had things they could teach other people

Laura saw Jon Max making his way carefully back towards the front of the canoe, carrying one of the water bags. Apparently Jon-Max had just finished giving water to the thirsty rowers. When he got to the front of the canoe, he spoke quietly to his friend.

"I guess we better do something about that torch on the right side. It's about to burn out," said Jon Max.

"That must be what Mauk-sis-a-noop woke me up for. Should we wake up old sleepy head to help us?" said Laura, nodding towards Qua-yuta's slumbering form. The Makah boy lay wrapped in a cedar-bark blanket at the bottom of the canoe.

"No, leave him alone," he said. "We can do it by ourselves, this time."

Laura nodded in agreement, and the two young time travelers went to work, pulling out a long bundle of fuzzy cedar bark strands from a woven basket under their seat. Then they laid the strands out on the bottom of the canoe.

They carefully took hold of the poll and pulled the torch from its mount. Because the pole was so long and heavy, it was difficult to keep the flaming end of the pole from sagging down and plunging into the water. As they slide the pole back into the canoe, several of the resting rowers behind them took hold of the end and helped the two young people hold it steady.

At the burning end of the pole, there was still a small portion of the cedar bark wrapping which had not burned away. Jon Max and Laura carefully held the burning end out over the water, close to the side of the canoe. Then they borrowed a paddle and used it to push the charred remains of the old wrapping off the end of the pole. It dropped into the water next to the canoe, hissing and smoking as the seawater quenched the last of the flames. The blackened wad of burnt material went bobbing out of sight as the canoe left it behind.

Next, the two 5th graders carefully wrapped the smoldering end of the pole with fresh strands of cedar bark, securely tying each strand tightly around the pole. After tying the last strand in place, Jon-Max held the pole at arms length for a moment, studying it with a thoughtful expression.

"It looks just like a giant dirty Q-Tip," said Jon Max.

Laura chuckled and said, "Yeah, it does. Actually, I wish I had a Q-Tip right now. My mom uses Q-Tips to clean out my ears." She stuck one finger into her ear and wiggled it around. "I think I'm overdue for a little ear cleaning."

Jon Max leaned close and peered into Laura’s left ear for a moment, then he said, "Your right, it looks pretty nasty in there. Hold still and I'll use this big Q-Tip to clean it out."

The two 5th graders laughed loudly for a moment, but they quickly wiped the smiles from their faces when Mauk-sis-a-noop turned and gave them stern looks for taking so long to get their job done.

Quickly they began the messy task of soaking the newly wrapped bundle of strands in the smelly whale oil that would cause the material to burn for a long time.

Laura held the end of the pole over the side of the canoe while Jon Max clutched a sealskin bladder and poured whale oil over the bundle of strands. It was a difficult job, because holding the liquid-filled bladder was like holding a giant, water-filled balloon. Some of the whale oil spilled on poor Laura;s hands and arms.

Laura wrinkled her nose at the smell of the whale oil. "Next time, it's your turn to hold the end of the torch."

When the strands were thoroughly soaked, Laura quickly wiped here hands on a woven matte. Then she and Jon Max pushed the long pole out ahead of the canoe, grunting and straining as they held it above the water and struggled to get the other end into the wooden mount that held it in place.

Mauk-sis-a-noop watched as he stood over them, making no effort to help, even though the pole was now heavier than before because of the new, oil-soaked bundle of cedar bark strands. But the two young people managed to slide the end of the pole down into the mount without letting the wrapped end drop down into the water.

Neither Laura nor Jon Max saw the master harpooner smile with pride as he watched them finish the difficult job successfully. He was thinking about what fine warriors and tribal leaders these two remarkable young people would someday make.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted when the rolling back of a whale surfaced just fifty feet ahead of the canoe. The sharp hissing sound of air and water blasting out of the whale's blowhole brought Qua-yuta leaping up from his place of slumber in the bottom of the canoe. The geyser of water that shot up into the air came dangerously close to putting out both of the torches on the master harpooner's canoe. Some of the fine spray drifted back to the canon, misting its occupants.

Shouts went up from the other canoes as more whales were spotted, and in seconds the fleet was surrounded by the sea giants, each one boldly announcing its arrival with a blast of white mist and an explosive hissing sound.

Qua-yuta joined his two friends as they watched the whales swim along with the canoes. The sea was beautifully lit by the moon overhead, a silvery light that gave the scene a weird and wonderful quality, like something from a strange dream.

"Look," Qua-yuta whispered, pointing at something on the water's surface that was slowly passing the canoe's right side. It was the three the bundles of floatation bladders that were connected to the harpoons in the whale that swam directly ahead of them.

The rowers slowed and let the whale gain a little on the canoe, then they began pacing it again as the pod made its way through the night, heading steadily north, towards the rich summer waters off the coast of Alaska.

"Father?" Qua-yuta said softly. "Will you set another harpoon into the whale before he dives again?"

"No. Not yet," said the master harpooner. "The pain of a new harpoon would cause him to make another fast run. We might loose him in the dark. If we decide he needs another harpoon, we'll wait until the first light of dawn to do it."

Slowly, one by one, the whales finished their time of breathing on the surface and then slide back down beneath the surface. Qua-yuta and his two time-traveling friends watched as the three bundles of floatation bladders disappeared below the water. The sea became calm again. The silence of the night fell around them.

Mauk-sis-a-noop turned to his son and spoke in a soft voice that showed a little of the weariness he must have felt. "I shall rest for a time, my son. Stand watch for me."

Qua-yuta's face lit up with a smile that rivaled the moon's brightness, and he stood up to proudly take his father's place at the prow of the canoe. Mauk-sis-a-noop sat down on the seat directly behind his son, leaned forward, and placed one arm along the edge of the canoe. He laid his head down on the arm.

Jon Max and Laura looked up at Qua-yuta, standing tall at the prow of the canoe, silhouetted against the star-filled sky as he faced the quiet sea ahead and kept a careful watch for the whales.

After a moment, Jon Max settled down on the woven matte at the bottom of the canoe which Qua-yuta had been using for a bed, then he pulled another woven matte over his body to ward off the night's chill.

"Well, it looks like you guys have things under control," he said, his words distorted by a huge yawn. "Wake me if anything interesting happens, okay? Like, say . . . if Moby Dick shows up."

Laura just chuckled, she pulled a woven matte from under the seat and wadded it up to make a pillow as she leaned forward and lay across the edge of the canoe, the way Mauk-sis-a-noop had done. The rower behind her gently placed a second woven matte across the young persons shoulders. Laura mumbled a sleepy thank you.

In less than a minute, both of the young time travelers were asleep.
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Laura woke up from a dream in which she was freezing to death — and discovered that she [was freezing to death!

It was nearly dawn, and the eastern sky above the distant land to the right of the canoe was ablaze with a sunrise that was as spectacular as the sunset from the day before. The gentle ocean breeze that had blown most of the night had died away in the pre-dawn stillness, and the sea was again a smooth green vastness that stretched for miles in all directions.

The fleet of canoes was still within sight of the shoreline, but they seemed to be a little further out than the day before.

The hours Laura had spent laying ger arm against the edge of the canoe had left her feeling stiff and sore. Her right arm was complete numb. The morning air held a chill that caused the poor 5th grader to shiver so violent that her trembling hands had trouble lifting the woven matte that had fallen to the bottom of the canoe.

Wrapping the matte around her shoulders was no easy job with a numb right arm. But as her struggled with it she suddenly noticed a helping hand from the rower behind her.

Laura turned and smiled at the Makah man who had helped settle the matte snuggly around her shoulders. "Th-th-th-thanks," Laura said, her teeth chattering so fast that she could barely talk.

"You're welcome, Sho-karee," he replied, smiling back. He, too, was wrapped in a matte, as were most of the rowers who were not currently on duty. Apparently the strenuous job of handling the big paddles was enough to keep the men warm while they were paddling, but when they began their rest period, they had to wrap up quickly to keep their muscles warm and avoid getting cramps.

Laura turned back towards the front of the canoe and saw that Mauk-sis-a-noop was again standing at the prow, scanning the sea and keeping a watchful eye on the positions of the other canoes in the fleet.

The whales was nowhere in sight. Laura wondered for a moment if the master harpooner had allowed the pod to slip away in the night. His serious expression might have been caused by his worry for the success of the hunt. All the canoes were moving much more slowly than they had all night long. Laura could see the men in the other canoes as their heads turned this way and that, searching the empty surface of the sea for any sign of their prey.

Qua-yuta was seated at this father's feet, and he too was carefully studying the sea in all directions. Mauk-sis-a-noop raised his arms above his head and clapped his hands together three times, the signal for "stop paddling".

All the rowers lifted their paddles from the water and held them straight up while the canoes drifted along.

"We may have gotten ahead of the whales," said Mauk-sis-a-noop. "We will wait here for a time and see if they catch up."

"But father," said Qua-yuta in a worried voice, "what if they are ahead of us?"

"If we don't seem them soon, we'll move quickly for a while and try to catch up with them."

Qua-yuta looked over at his friend from the future, his young face filled with concern for the success of the whale hunt, then the Makah youth turned his attention back to the sea around them.

Laura looked down at Jon Max, who was still laying on the bottom of the canoe. But Jon-Max's eyes were open as he lay on his back with his hands propped behind his head, and he was looking up at the sky, a slight smile tugging the corners of his mouth upward.

"Hey, now . . . would you look at that," Jon-Max said in a lazy, relaxed voice. "That cloud looks just like a whale."

Laura tilted bere head back to look straight up. Low and behold, Jon Max was right. A long cloud, tinted pink by the sunrise, floated directly overhead, and it did have a shape that reminded her of a whale.

"Do you think it's an omen?" said Jon Max, his smile getting just a bit wider. Laura realized that she had seen that mischievous look on Jon-Max's face before. It was his "you’re-in-for-a-surprise" look. After a moment, Laura thought maybe she knew the reason for the look.

"Let me guess. You’ve been talking to Gidget, right?" she whispered.

"Yep," Jon Max whispered back. Laura knew that Gidget could talk to Jon-Max in a way that no one else could hear, just like her own lifeguard unit could do.

"And did you ask your spirit helper from the future to tell you where the whales are?" Laura whispered even lower.

"Right," said Jon Max, his smile growing wider by the second.

"Okay. So . . . where are they?"

Jon Max flashed his friend a full-on grin as he whispered teasingly, "They are . . . in the water."

Laura gave her friend a quick look of annoyance, then she reached down next to the canoe and scooped up a handful of seawater to dump onto Jon Max's grinning face. But as she raised the handful of water, she saw something several feet below the surface. It took her a moment to realize that it was the gray back of a whale, rising slowly, right next to the canoe!

The canoe shuddered slightly as the rising whale bumped gently into it, and all the rowers lurched with surprise. The gray back of the whale appeared above the surface alongside the canoe, water streamed off it's glistening hide. The whale's skin was lumpy and rough, not slick like the skin of its cousin, the dolphin. In places there were tiny shelled sea creatures attached to it.

The blow hole in the whale's back opened up, and the air was split by sound of the exposive blast of air and water which shot high above the heads of the watching people. The water rained down and drenched Laura, Jon-Max,, and all the rest of the canoe's occupants. The men roared with laughter as they wiped the water from their faces. The men in the other canoes were laughing, too.

One hundred feet ahead of the canoe, the three groups of floatation bladders bobbed to the surface. Seconds later the dark back of the whale the bladders were attached to appeared slowly above the water. It sent a geyser of white spray high into the air.

The appearance of their prey quieted the men in the canoes, and they watched the master harpooner carefully to see what he would do.

"Father, I'll get the killing lance ready!" Qua-yuta said in an excited voice. He reached down to grab the long, deadly tool that would be used to deal the fatal wound to whale.

"No, not yet," Mauk-sis-a-noop said. "But very soon.

One by one, the other whales surfaced in the water around the fleet of canoes, their rounded backs rising slowly above the calm surface. As each whale appeared, a tall jet of water and air exploded upward from their blow holes. The whales seemed content to float motionless while the men in the canoes watched in silent awe.

Laura was still staring down at the rounded back of the whale next to her just inches away from her fingertips. The water dripped from her cupped hand onto the back of the great sea giant. After a moment sherealized that she hadn't moved a muscle or taken a breath since the whale had surfaced. She drew a deep breath and let it out slowly, afraid do to anything that might frighten away this gentle giant of the deep.

Jon Max rose up slowly and knelt in front of his friend's seat, placing his elbows on the edge of the canoe. The boy from the future slowly leaned over the edge of the canoe and reached out his hand. He placed it on the knobby, wet surface of the whale's back. He stroked it gently, as if he were petting a sleeping cat.

"What does it feel like?" Laura whispered.

"It feels . . . like a whale. Nothing else feels like this," he said in a reverent whisper. He couldn't take his eyes off the amazing sight, and neither could Laura . Her eyes traveled back along the whales length, looking for the sea giant's wide tail. She spotted it next the very end of the long canoe, a dark triangle just below the surface of the water.

"Father, I don't undertand," Qua-yuta whispered to Mauk-sis-a-noop. "What are the whales doing?"

"Resting . . . and giving comfort to their wounded brother. See?" said the master harpooner. He pointed at the injured whale, who had been joined by two whales who swam close by its sides.

Silent minutes passed slowly as the whale pod continued to float near the canoes, sometimes nudging them gently. Finally, the whale next to the master harpooner's canoe began to move forward slowly. Its long body glided along next to the canoe until its tail went passed, stirring the calm water as the whale moved out ahead of the fleet.

The other whales followed. As the last whale passed Mauk-sis-a-noop's canoe, the master harpooner raised his arm and gave the signal for the rowers to lower their paddles. The fleet moved off, keeping pace with the slowly swimming sea giants.

Mauk-sis-a-noop turned to his son and said, "Make the killing lance ready, my son. It is time to end the hunt."

Qua-yuta carefully pulled the long weapon from under the seats, with the help of several paddlers who reached down and pushed the killing lance forward until Qua-yuta could lift it and hand to his father. The Makah youth was grinning happily at the thought of being part of his first "kill".

Jon Max and Laura on the other hand, exchanged sad looks as they realized what was about to happen. Qua-yuta saw the expressions on their faces, and he looked puzzled.

"Why do you look sad, my friends?"

"Ummm . . . well . . . " Jon-Max tried to find the words to explain why he and his companion couldn't feel the same joy about killing the whale as the Makah did. "We were just thinking what a shame it is that such a wonderful animal must die."

Mauk-sis-a-noop turned and gazed down at the three young people for a moment, then he said, "Death happens to all creatures. Yes, I know that death creates sadness. But we must accept it."

Jon Max smiled at the master harpooner, even though there was pity in his eyes for the doomed whale. "Yes, sir, we understand that. And we know that your people need the whale to survive."

"You are correct, Nu-konee. And this whale will provide many things which my people need. To hunt the whale has been our way of life since the beginning of time."

Mauk-sis-a-noop turned to study the pod ahead, as the canoes closed in on the wounded whale. The weakened animal had dropped back, moving sluggishly while the rest of the pod moved along at a leisurely pace. The master harpooner's canoe caught up with the three groups of floatation bladders that trailed behind the whale. The rowers brought the canoe steadily closer to the whale's right side.

As they did so, the last of the whale's waning strength seemed to leave it. Finally, just ahead of the master harpooner's canoe, the whale came to a halt in the water.

The rowers brought the canoes to a stop by thrusting their paddles straight down, letting them drag through the water. The fleet gathered on both sides of the dying animal.

Standing tall in the prow of his canoe, Mauk-sis-a-noop held the killing lance firmly, his hands spread wide as he aimed the lethal weapon at the head of the whale.





Behind him, Laura and Jon Max watched until the last possible second, but when the master harpoon made the hard thrust that ended the whales life, both the young people turned their eyes away.





Moments later they heard a great shout of joy from all the Makah, and they knew that the great giant of the sea was finally dead.

Now the Makah went to work, preparing for the hard voyagage back to the village, with whale carcass in tow.




NEXT: CHAPTER 13 ~Trading with the Chinook
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)